• Joseph Grigulevich: A Tale of Identity, Soviet Espionage, and Storytelling

    Author(s):
    Andrei Znamenski (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Subject(s):
    Communism, Emigration and immigration, Ethnicity, Immigrants--Social conditions, Identity (Psychology), Jews--Social life and customs, Soviet Union, History
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    espionage, jewish diaspora, Karaim, KGB, Diaspora studies, Identity, Jewish culture, Soviet history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/64fq-zn24
    Abstract:
    This paper explores the life of Joseph Grigulevich (1913–1988), a famous early Soviet illegal intelligence operative, who conducted various “special tasks” on behalf of Stalin’s foreign espionage network. These included the murder of dissident Spanish communist Andreas Nin (1938), a participation in the assassination of Leon Trotsky (1940), posing as a Costa Rican ambassador (1949–1952), and an abortive project to assassinate Joseph Bros Tito (1952). In contrast to conventional espionage studies that are usually informed by diplomatic, political, and military history approaches, I employ a cultural history angle. First, the paper examines the formation of Grigulevich’s communist and espionage identity against his background as a cosmopolitan Jewish “other” from the interwar Polish-Lithuanian realm. Second, it explores his role in the production and invention of intelligence knowledge, which he later used to jump start his second career as a prominent Soviet humanities scholar and a bestselling writer of revolutionary non-fiction.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Publisher:
    Brill
    Pub. Date:
    2017
    Journal:
    The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review
    Volume:
    44
    Issue:
    3
    Page Range:
    314 - 341
    ISSN:
    1876-3324
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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